Islam in Dagestan

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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i found this article on kavkaz center, it is a very good reminder that how much the kuffar fear the islamic revival but no matter how much they try to condemn it by calling it “wahabisim” they can not overturn the tide inshallah…

Revival of Islam in Dagestan has to bother the Kremlin and its henchmen in that Republic. This is the reason why they are desperately using the myth about the so-called ‘Wahabism’. And this is where Moscow’s constant attempts to impose interethnic hostilities in Dagestan are coming from.

Through their agents among Dagestani ‘religious authorities’, Russian secret services keep suggesting the idea that the ill-omened ‘Wahabism’ poses a threat to some ‘traditional Islam’ and to national culture of the Dagestanis.

Neither Russian FSB (Federal Security Service, former KGB) nor ‘clerical administration’ in Dagestani capital Makhachkala know what ‘traditional Islam’ or ‘Wahhabism’ is. But it doesn’t stop all sorts of agents among the collaborators and all sorts of apostates from being concerned about independence of the Dagestani way of life.

Just yesterday they were scoffing at religious principles of the Dagestanis. And one of their favorite subjects of discussion was the subject of «an oppressed woman of the East», who at the dawn of the Socialist Revolution (of 1917) was against the ‘savage’ customs: such a woman would allegedly toss her hateful headscarf to her father’s feet.

One of such agents, Soviet poet Gamzatov, wrote: «savage is the custom to be mocking at a woman’s destiny». He has saying that a highland woman’s aspirations and desire to enjoy equal rights with men is a ‘heroic exploit’.

The ‘heroic exploits’ of a highland woman, glorified by Gamzatov, have now led to the fact that many Dagestani women became shameless and disgraced. The inculcation of «progressive Russian civilization» left its traces, and today there is a sad picture observed in the Caucasus: adultery, drinking, drug addiction and depravity.

The pioneers of propaganda of «friendly Russian-Dagestani relations» opened a new form of business: profiteering from names of legendary people. What Gamzatov did not succeed in doing in his time, his ideological successors are now trying to make up for it today.

Petty scam artists and criminals, who are now holding seats in all kinds of parliaments, are showing especial zeal in it. Thus, former seller of raisings Haji Makhachev, who is now a congressman in the ‘United Russia’ political party, and who was distinguished for murdering and robbing Muslims in the villages of Karamakhi and Chabanmakhi, hung the portrait of… Imam Shamil under the slogans of Russia’s unity along with portraits of Pushkin (Russian poet of early 19th century), Lenin and Stalin!

In the end of last month the so-called religion committee of Dagestan’s puppet regime held a gathering of former communist functionaries with the agenda of opposing to the revival of Islam in the Republic of Dagestan. The gathering was timed to the five-year anniversary of ravaging the two villages (Karamakhi and Chabanmakhi) in that Republic. When opening that gathering, the ringleader of the so-called «religious affairs committee» Magomedov said that Dagestani collaborators will have to discuss the experience gained by the puppet structures over the five years that have passed since those two villages were ravaged. The justificatory speeches of national traitors were especially stressing that in 1999 Muslims of those two villages were allegedly «going to spread their influence all across the Russian territories». At the same time the collaborators were referring to the words of so-called ‘sheikh’ Said-Afandi of Chirkei, Kadyrov’s co-worker in the KGB/FSB service.

During their gathering, the invaders’ accomplices were vividly discussing the law on opposing the revival of Islam. It is notable that this document adopted by the puppets back in 1999, which declares the Islamic values as being outlawed, contradicts the constitution of the Russian invaders, which declares so-called freedom of religion.

It must be admitted that the Kremlin’s fears concerning Dagestan have their grounds and reasons. The number of Dagestani Resistance Fighters (Mujahideen) in the Republic is growing and war operations are already crossing the boundaries of Dagestan. The recent blast of the group of high-ranking Dagestani pro-Moscow police officials near Moscow shows how serious the situation is. And it looks like Moscow understands it. And this is where the nervous twitch of the Russian authorities and their local puppets comes from. They are in fever while looking for a way out of the deadlock, from which there is most likely no way out at all.

Ahmad of Ichkeria,
for Kavkaz Center

2004-11-20 00:31:13

to all those from green little footballs..even posting the link of up and running kavkazcenter.com should be a blow, inshalalh it will stand online as long as allah wills and will only be down when allah wills.

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mashallah the chechen nation is one of the most resiliant nations on earth and i ask allah to give them inheritance of thier land in this earth and to make them enter jannatat firdaus for their resiliance against the enemy for the religion of allah :swt:

A salient feature of politics in the Northern Caucasus has been the primacy of religious identification, coupled with a spirit of rebellion and a capacity for prolonged resistance against overwhelming odds. Throughout the decades, Islam has worked as a unifying force for the people of the Northern Caucasus in their struggle against Russian “infidel” influence.

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the region has been characterized by an increase in religiosity and an upsurge in the prominence of more fundamentalist Islamism. Not only has the region witnessed a dramatic increase in the number of mosques since the 1980s, but interestingly, even in the last days of the former Soviet Union, Dagestan and Chechnya produced more pilgrims for the annual Hajj than the rest of the USSR combined. Current events in the region should therefore be viewed in the context of the centuries of heavy-handed and often genocidal Russian policies aimed at the subjugation of the Muslims of the Caucasus, and as the ultimate result of underlying tensions exacerbated by failed Russian socio-economic policies.

Understanding the dynamics of the conflict in Chechnya is crucial to understanding Caucasian politics. The conflict in Chechnya is the central theme around which other regional struggles manifest.

Chechnya is a small nation situated in the Caucasus within the southern border of the Russian Federation. First known in the Middle Ages, the Chechens are a distinct ethno-linguistic group who called themselves the Nokhchi. Religiously and culturally distinct from the Russians and Cossacks, they have resisted Russian rule since the colonial wars of the late 18th century… Shari`ah law offered a historically respected legal and social code that was much sought after in Chechnya. Islam has since remained the primary source of identification for the Chechens, and the main mobilizing force for their resistance of Russian tyranny. Hence, the quest for an independent Islamic republic was the motivating factor behind many Chechen uprisings.

The Russian conquest of the North Caucasus, an Ottoman protectorate, began at the end of the 18th century. The first concerted efforts by Muslim North Caucasian nations to repel the Russian advance were led by a Chechen, Mansur Ushurma between 1785 and 1791. His jihad achieved remarkable military successes at a time when Russia was at the height of its power. He greatly raised Islamic awareness, teaching his followers steadfastness in the face of the Russian enemy. In fact, the “Islamization of the Northwestern Caucasus was the most durable work of Sheikh Mansur.”

Sheikh Mansur’s jihad came to an end, however, in the aftermath of the Ottoman’s 1791 loss of Anapa, their Black Sea fortress, leading to the capture of the Sheikh, who died in Russian captivity in 1794.

In 1816, General Alexei Yermolov was appointed chief administrator of Georgia and the Caucasus. His autocratic and deliberately cruel rule shaped the future of Russian-Chechen relations. In 1818 he wrote to Tsar Alexander II that “he would find no peace as long as a single Chechen remained alive” because “by their example they could inspire a rebellious spirit and love of freedom among even the most faithful subjects of the Empire.” His advent marked a policy of systematic extermination and expulsion in the North Caucasus. In the process of the Russian conquest, tens of thousands of Chechen noncombatants died, agricultural land was denied to Chechens to starve them into submission, and more than a million people were expelled from their homelands, settling in Turkey and elsewhere in the Middle East.

Yermolov’s policies paved the way for the emergence of the three imams who spearheaded Chechen resistance during the Caucasus War (1817-64). The three were Kazi Mullah, Gamzat-Bek, and Shamil. The latter was perhaps the most outstanding political and military leader ever to emerge in the North Caucasus.

Imam Shamil was an exceptionally tall, strong, and athletic man, an unrivalled horseman, highly intelligent, and well educated in the Arabic language and Muslim religious literature. He repeatedly outmaneuvered the Russians in both battles and negotiations, and determinedly pursued his goal of an Islamic state governed by Shari`ah law.

In 1859, the Russian military contingent in the North Caucasus numbered half a million. Prince Bariatinsky, the Russian commander-in-chief, deployed 40,000 troops in the final assault against Shamil and his 500 remaining partisans at Gunib in the Daghestani mountains. Baysangur of Benoy, the Chechen lieutenant of Shamil, managed to break through the Russian encirclement and lead the Chechen resistance for a further three years. Of the 100 Chechens who followed him to continue fighting in Chechnya, only 30 survived. Among them was an ancestor of Shamil Basayev.

After the capture and execution of Baysangur, not a single legitimate Chechen leader could be made to swear allegiance to the Russian Empire. Totally decimated, reduced to barely 50,000 souls after half a century of warfare, Chechnya had been defeated but not pacified. In 1877-78, the people of Chechnya and Dagestan launched another major rebellion against the Russian authorities. It was known as the smaller Ghazawat (battles), and ended with the mass executions of Naqshbandi and Quadiri followers, thousands of deportations to Siberia, and an exodus to the Ottoman Empire from the lowland of northern Chechnya. Almost 60 years later, in 1940 and 1942 the Soviet Air Force bombed Chechnya and Ingushetia to quell popular insurrections.

In February 1944, the whole Chechen and Ingush nations were deported under the pretext that they had collaborated with the enemy during World War II – an absurd accusation, given that the Germans had not even reached their territories. Some were sent to the death camps in Siberia; the majority was moved to the frozen wastes of Kazakhstan. Half of the 618,000 deportees perished during transportation and the ensuing typhus epidemic.

Some atrocities in particular left deep marks: in Khaibakh, isolated in the mountains, 700 people too old or too ill to be transported, or simply living in villages too remote for convenient transport, were gathered into an ancient tower and burned alive.

Despite the multiple genocidal measures undertaken by the Russians, the Chechens were renowned for being the only nation who refused to accept the psychology of submission.

On December 10, 1994, Russian President Boris Yeltsin called upon the Russian armed forces to restore order in the breakaway Chechen republic. The military deployed to the Caucasus soon thereafter, utilizing World War II-era doctrines that emphasized the massing of forces and aerial carpet-bombing. Despite the overall superiority of Russian forces, the lightly-armed Chechens managed, with the help of battle-hardened Arab mujahideen led by the famous Commander Khattab, to repel the Russian invasion and achieve a short-lived Chechen independence.

The Chechen struggle in 1994-96 was the latest in a series of anti-colonial wars. The Chechen victory was unique in the modern history of war, in that the Chechens won, not just without the support of a real state, but without the help of any formal military or political organization. They relied solely on the strength of their society and traditions. Nevertheless, using the pretext of a mysterious wave of bombings in Russian cities, Russia invaded Chechnya once again in 1999.

By Kareem M. Kamel
Islam Online

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Thandymazza, I do not understand, you want to discuss religion or politics?
Though I agree that we must not blame wahabism for terror, instead we should give an open call to study the general principals of Islam to find the real threats to peace.